In this insightful take on Shakespeare’s classic tragedy, Hamlet is tormented by conflicting desires, demands and doubts.

When he’s haunted by his dead father, things escalate quickly and Hamlet has to make an important decision: to be or not to be?

Brett Dean’s Hamlet hits the Tour

Shakespeare’s quintessential tragedy will be given new life in a rare world premiere in Festival 2017 before transferring straight to the Tour in autumn 2017.

Audiences will be able to see Composer Brett Dean and Librettist Matthew Jocelyn’s new commission of Hamlet at Glyndebourne, Canterbury, Norwich, Milton Keynes and Plymouth.

Brett Dean’s richly atmospheric and deeply dramatic music captures the essence and timelessness of Shakespeare’s story, in which Hamlet navigates a maze of love and madness, murder and revenge, on his quest for the truth.

Was it really his uncle Claudius who killed his father, the King of Denmark, to seize the dead king’s crown and wife?

The innovatively orchestrated score buoys Matthew Jocelyn’s libretto, which consists only of words and phrases written by or attributed to Shakespeare, to bring the tragedy to its inevitable conclusion.